Comparison of the number of live births, maternal age at childbirth, and weight of live births between Korean women and immigrant women in 2018

Abstract

This study compared maternal age at childbirth, the number of live births, and the weight of live births between Korean women and immigrant women using statistical data from the Republic of Korea for the period of 2008-2018. Methods: The analysis was conducted using data from the Microdata Integrated Service of Statistics Korea (https://mdis.kostat.go.kr/index.do). Results: Korean women and immigrant women showed a higher age at childbirth in 2018 than in 2008. The percentage of newborns of Korean women with a birth weight of less than 2.5 kg increased slightly for 3 consecutive years from 2016 to 2018, whereas for immigrant women, this percentage increased in 2017 compared to 2016 and then decreased again in 2018. Very low birth weight (less than 1.5 kg) became more common among immigrant women from 2016 to 2018. Birth at a gestational age of fewer than 37 weeks increased both among Korean and immigrant women from 2016 to 2018. In both groups, the percentage of women who had their first child within their first 2 years of marriage decreased from 2008 to 2018. Conclusion: Immigrant women had higher birth rates than Korean women, while both groups showed an increasing trend in preterm birth. Greater attention should be paid to the pregnancy and birth needs of immigrant women, and steps are needed to ensure health equity and access in order to prevent preterm births. It is also necessary to identify factors that affect preterm birth and birth of very low birth weight infants among immigrant women in the future.

Comparison of infant mortality and associated factors between Korean and immigrant women in Korea: an 11-year longitudinal study

“…Furthermore, implementing a pregnancy and childbirth management method suitable for immigrant women in Korea could support having healthy children and reducing the IMR compared to the present statistic. A previous study confirmed the rates of preterm birth and low birth weight in immigrant and Korean women [6]. Therefore, the current study intended to compare the IMR, mortality-related features, and infant mortality factors of immigrant women with their Korean counterparts.…”

“…The analysis of the infant mortality trends over 11 years revealed that the IMR in immigrant women was lower than that of Korean women; however, since 2015, the IMR of the two groups stands at a similar level. In particular, the IMR in immigrant women in 2018 was more than twice as high as than other years, but the birth rate of infants born to immigrant women in 2018 did not differ from that of previous years [6], i.e., the cycles of birth and death did not coincide. In Korea, the IMR for the past 5 years averaged 2.7, which is lower than the OECD average (4.2) [9], which illustrates the good management of maternal and child health in Korea.…”